Agency saves 15–20% of their time by tracking task efficiency

iThinkMedia — digital marketing agency that provides services such as paid search SEO and content marketing, located in the UK.

Their story

Time spent on tasks was difficult to measure and led to project delays

As a digital marketing agency, iThinkMedia manages a great deal of projects both internally and externally. Although there might be some flexibility internally, clients expect attention to detail and punctual delivery.

When planning a project for a client, Daniel Dracott, SEO and PPC Executive at iThinkMedia, and his team would try and budget enough time to get each task done by a reasonable date. But tasks were taking longer than expected, throwing off the whole plan. Plus, communication was mainly done through email and spreadsheets, so it was difficult and time consuming to find the latest project updates and document versions. Dracott needed a tool that would help his team communicate easily, find documents quickly, and track time spent on specific tasks.

Whereas some tools force you into a way of working, Wrike allows you to structure it how you want. It’s intuitive so anyone can pick it up and it doesn’t require a lot of training to make it beneficial to your team.

Daniel Dracott,

SEO and PPC Executive, iThinkMedia

As opposed to just planning out time on a spreadsheet per client, it’s now incorporating client time, personal development time, and growing-the-business time as well. So it’s managing the whole business as opposed to just the client time.

Daniel Dracott,

SEO and PPC Executive, iThinkMedia

Their victory

Dracott turned to Wrike as a project management solution to help track how much time his team spent on tasks. The team now has visibility into precisely how long certain tasks take and can accurately plan future projects, assess whether their time is spent efficiently, and identify places where they can improve their processes. “We have saved around 15-20% of our time per week by allocating time and tasks to people using Wrike,” says Dracott. “This has allowed us to free up time to market our own business.”

Communication has also become more fluid with all their project data collected in one place. Team members at iThinkMedia now turn to Wrike to view all important updates and project deadlines, and it’s easier for them to locate documents and update clients on project status. By communicating through Wrike, the team can request feedback and discuss their work right in the task, instead of trying to spottily recall decisions made in during meetings.

Their superpowers

Custom Fields

Custom Fields allows the iThinkMedia team to tailor their billable hours reports and export the final report each month. They can also run custom reports by department to view how many tasks were completed by each team on a monthly basis. This feature replaced their monthly planners, which took longer to prepare and process.

Built-In Timer

Wrike’s built-in timer has greatly improved the agency’s efficiency. They now are able to track exactly how long tasks take so they can more accurately plan future projects, and they can easily distinguish between billable and non-billable hours. “The time tracking tool is beneficial across the company,” says Dracott. “The director can see his Dashboards and deadlines, managers can see what their departments are working on, and from a personal level, employees can use it to manage their own time.”

File Sharing

Before Wrike, sharing files was done via email or through Apple AirDrop. This made it difficult to track where documents were stored and manage the most up-to-date versions. Now the team shares files directly in Wrike by attaching them directly to the corresponding task. If they update a document, they can quickly replace the existing Wrike file with the new version. “With Wrike, we’re saving so much space on our computers, our servers, and don’t have to worry about looking through emails for the right attachment,” says Dracott.